This invention relates to vehicle generators, and more particularly to an insulating structure for the lead wires of a stator coil.
In general, the lead wires of a stator coil of this kind are insulated by insulating tubes respectively fitted over the lead wires. With such an insulating structure, however, it is impossible to mechanize the process of fitting the insulating tubes over the lead wires due to their peculiar shape, and there are deficiences such as defective products resulting from the tubes falling off of the lead wires.
Now, a conventional insulating structure of this kind will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2 of the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 generally shows portion of vehicular generator which comprises a rotor 10 arranged in a housing and rotatably supported by the opposite walls of the housing, and a stator 11 surrounding the rotor 10 and having a coil 12 with lead wires 13 extending therefrom, each lead wire being covered with an insulating tube 14 for protection purposes. The stator 11 is fixed to the housing by means of a metallic rear bracket 21 within which is disposed a rectifier assembly 30 including a rectifier 31. Secured to the rectifier 31 by screws etc. is a windscreen 32 having an L-shaped cross section which, as clearly shown in FIG. 2, is formed with three guide grooves 32a in spaced parallel relation with each other for guiding the lead wires 13 of the coil 12 protected by the insulating tubes 14.
With conventional generators as constructed in the above manner, the insulating tubes 14 are fitted over the respective lead wires 13 of the stator coil 12 so as to insulate and protect the lead wires 13 from the inner surface of the rear bracket 21. As a result, conventional generators have the following drawbacks. Namely, it is impossible to mechanize the assembly operation of putting the insulating tubes 14 over the lead wires 13 owing to their particular shape, and defective products often result from the insulating tubes falling off of the lead wires 13 of the coil 12.